Fans in the Bercy Arena will be on the lookout for Andrade’s unprecedented triple-twisting Yurchenko vault, which she has yet to debut at the Games. This vault would bring Andrade’s scoring potential significantly closer to Biles’.
“She's way too close. I've never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes,” Biles told reporters on Thursday after holding off Andrade in the all-around final to secure gold.
“I'm getting uncomfortable, guys. I don’t like that feeling. I was stressing!”
Andrade has already edged Biles in a major competition, when Biles fell on her Yurchenko double pike in the vault final at last year’s world championships, losing to Andrade by two-tenths of a point.
Biles will become the third most-decorated female gymnast with 10 Olympic medals should she vault her way to the medal podium, as expected.
The male gymnasts will on Saturday contest the floor exercise and pommel horse, the latter of which could feature the most exciting battle for gold among all the apparatus finals.
The starting list for the pommel horse is stacked with talent, as the top three qualifiers share a combined 12 Olympic and World medals on the apparatus, eight of them gold.
Max Whitlock, who took home gold in the event in Rio and Tokyo, qualified in third as the 31-year-old was edged in the standings by Rhys McClenaghan and Stephen Nedoroscik, both 25.
McClenaghan is eyeing Ireland’s first Olympic gymnastics medal after faltering in the pommel final in Tokyo, and viral U.S. sensation Nedoroscik will chase his second Games medal after clinching a US team bronze with his action-packed routine.
Pommel horse is often compared with women’s balance beam since falls can come easily. Two men that qualified within 0.2 point of the leader, including Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaiev, could capitalise on any errors from the top gymnasts.
Britain’s Jake Jarman qualified in first place on the floor exercise, but China’s Zhang Boheng, who trailed Jarman by half a point in the preliminaries, will be seeking redemption after costly errors on the apparatus, including a fall onto his head during the all-around final that forced him to settle for silver behind Japan’s Shinnosuke Oka.
